Part II: A Tale of Gods.
The Vanishing Point.
"Barry?" Sara stared in shock at the man who looked like her late husband, except for the white suit and gold eyes.
"Yes and no." he responded, with his voice vibrating like it would when he was trying to disguise his voice to protect his identity. "It's complicated." the now White Flash told her.
"Complicated how?" Oliver asked softly, not wanting to believe that this was his brother and get his hopes up
Barry looked at him with a smile, expecting such a reaction from the Green Arrow. "I am Barry Allen. But I'm also something... more." he told them. "The Speed Force gave me the name Savitar, as I am the First and the Last."
"The First and Last what?" Kara asked of the man who claimed to be her best friend.
"Speedster." Barry answered bluntly. "I was the First Speedster and I will be the Last. Like I said, it's complicated." he admitted to their confused looks. "The Speed Force was made up of the positive nature of our Multiverse. Infinite Universes filled with an infinite number of people feeling joy, hope, love and friendship all giving life to the Speed Force itself, which in return served to bring about life to the Multiverse." he revealed to the group.
"At the moment of my death, I thought of all the people I loved. My friends" he smiled at Oliver and Kara, both of whom had tears in their eyes, and then to Sara "and my family. And with that love in my heart I opened myself up to the Speed Force completely and became one with it. But then I learned that the Speed Force was dying." At Barry's words Oliver, Kara, Sara and even Clark's eyes widened in shock at how something as powerful as the Speed Fore was potentially now dead.
Barry continued "The end of the Multiverse resulted in the end of the Speed Force, but with its last gasp it passed everything it had to me, The Last of its Children." Then his eyes glowed with white light. "Now I am Savitar, Guardian of Time and Defender of Life." Then, as the glow faded, Barry - no Savitar - smirked "or rather, its Paragon."
The other Paragons eyes widened. "You were the eighth Paragon." Bruce realized. Barry nodded. "Yes, the Paragon of Life. Though I did not fit the criteria until I sacrificed myself." he said, causing the Trinity to flinch.
"So what happens now?" J'onn asked him, getting them back to the matter at hand.
"Right now the Anti-Monitor is at the Dawn of Time, preparing to make permanent his destruction of worlds." Savitar revealed to them.
Jefferson growled out . "Then we go there, and we end him." he said determinedly.
But Barry shook his head. "That won't be possible. He is extremely powerful and with the destruction of the Multiverse, he has only become more so. The Shades we faced on Earth-38 were literal shadows of themselves. In that realm they will be even more powerful and there will be an infinite army of them." he revealed the extent of the fight they had ahead of them. "The eight of us won't be enough. We need help."
Oliver stepped up to the man who looked like his friend, still not wanting to believe it was really their Barry. "So what's your plan?" he asked.
Barry smiled at his friends paranoia. "You told me once that you believed in me." he reminded Oliver. "Do you still?"
Oliver swallowed a lump in his throat. "Prove to me that you really are Barry Allen." he said, stubbornly refusing to believe until he was certain.
Barry smiled in remembrance. "Do you remember when I first got my powers?" he asked rhetorically, knowing Oliver did. "I came to you for advice. I said I didn't think that I could be a vigilante like you. What you told me has stayed with me ever since. You said that I could be Better. Because I can inspire people in a way you never could. Watching over my city like a guardian angel. Making a difference." he smiled as Oliver's eyes filled with tears as he truly believed. "Saving people-"
"-In a Flash." Oliver finished with a smile. "Barry." He placed his hand on his friend's shoulder as if to convince himself that he was really there before him. Barry smiled back. "Hey, Ollie." This was all Sara and Kara needed, and suddenly they were both holding tightly to Barry sobbing at having him back.
Seeing the family reunited, Bruce, Jeff, Clark and J'onn all smiled, hoping for the same soon.
Barry smiled as he held his wife and friend in his arms once more. "You know, guys." he began and they all looked at him wondering what he was going to say next. "It's a good thing you believe me, because our ride... is here."
The Paragons didn't a chance to question this statement as there was a sudden dull boom from high above them. Sara winced as her communicator in her ear suddenly crackled to life.
"Cap... nce, are... ou... re?" a stuttering and familiar voice tried to say. "Captain, ca... ar me?" But once the voice came in clear, Sara smiled brightly. "Captain Lance, can you hear me?"
"Gideon! Is that you?" she asked hopefully. Everyone looked at her in equal parts confusion and hope. Barry just smirked when Sara looked at him.
"Affirmative, Captain. I was able to track your signal to the Vanishing Point." The AI of the Earth-1 Waverider said.
Suddenly another voice came over the communicator. "Sara, you there?" Nate Heywood aka Steel asked.
"Nate! Yeah we're all here." she said happily as everyone else smiled in growing hope. "Hold on I'm patching everyone in." she said as she did just that. The other Paragons all winced slightly as their own comm. devices crackled to life. "Nate, Barry's-" Sara began only to stop when she saw that Barry was suddenly gone.
The Paragons all looked around in confusion, hoping against hope that the former Flash wasn't their imagination.
Nate's voice brought them out of their confusion. It was full of sadness as he spoke. "Yeah, we heard. I'm sorry, Sara." he told her.
Sara was about to reveal what had become of Barry, knowing how it would sound, when she was suddenly puzzled. "Wait, you know? How do you know?" she asked in confusion.
There was an audible smile in Nate's voice. "Well we suddenly found ourselves with a bunch of new passengers." He revealed to the very hopeful Paragons, but before they could speak, Nate spoke. "Hold on, we're coming in. Get to the Landing Pad." He told them, before cutting the communication.
Instantly the heroes ran outside, to see the Waverider coming in to land. As the Paragons approached the door opened and a number of familiar figures walked out.
"Mom! Dad!" Mia Queen exclaimed as she ran towards her parents. "Mia?!" Kara and Oliver were shocked as their daughter ran over to them. They held her in their arms, happy to have her with them once more. Mia also brought Baby Nora over with her. The baby version of her best friend seemed fascinated with her new friend, but quickly lost all interest as soon as she saw her mommy. Sara was just relieved to have her baby in her arms as the little girl cheered at the sight of her.
Jefferson almost fell to his knees in relief when not only his wife, his best friend and his eldest ran up to him, but his youngest, Jennifer also did, fully recovered and brought up to date. He held them all as tears unashamedly fell down his cheeks.
Bruce and Selina shared a loving embrace as they were reunited.
J'onn and Alex hugged in joy. Kara also joined in the group hug along with Lena, Winn and Mon-El as Team Superfriends was reunited.
Clark and Lois kissed, happily reunited as Karen hugged her father. Lex also came and actually hugged his best friend, not even caring about the happy tears in his eyes. Karen also brought Baby Jon over to Kara, who not only embraced her nephew happily but also her niece.
Nora was happily babbling at her mommy, as though trying to tell her everything that had happening while she'd been gone, when she stopped and appeared as though she was looking for something. Or someone. "Dada!" the baby called out for her daddy, not seeing him anywhere. "Dada!" she continued calling.
Everyone, other than the Paragons, looked sad as the little girl called for her father who wouldn't come. None more so than Team Flash who looked like they'd just been punched in the gut.
However, just as Nora began to get sad that her daddy wasn't going to appear and just as Sara was about to tell them about what they'd seen, there was a sudden flash of white lightning surrounding the group of heroes. Team Flash looked on with hope and the figure in white came to a stop. He wasn't wearing his mask so everyone saw his face.
"Barry?/Dada!" Caitlin and Nora cried out at the same time, Caitlin in shock and Nora in joy.
Barry smiled at them, especially at his little girl, before he spoke in his vibrating voice. "Sorry, I'm late guys. Had to pick up some friends." He said, indicating the people with him who the group had not yet noticed.
Kara's eyes widened in shock as she recognized them easily. "Kal?! Lois?! Mom?!" she asked in stunned disbelief.
Sure enough it was Earth-38's very own Superman - in his suit - Lois Lane-Kent and Alura standing before them all, looking like they were just about holding on to their lunches from the travel at super-speed. Even Clark felt woozy from the speed.
Tom! Superman will be called Clark, while Tyler will be called Kal. Erica! Lois will be called Lois while Elizabeth will be called Lane.
They then heard Kara calling their names and turned to look at the assembled heroes. "Kara?" Alura asked in shock at the sight of her daughter. Kal and Lane heard the mother and daughter and saw Kal's cousin moving towards them with their son in her arms. "Jon." they said in joy at the sight of their baby boy. Lane took her son out of Kara's arms and held him close, kissing his forehead even as the little boy slept on obliviously.
Alura stared at the other man dressed in a version of her nephew's suit standing next to a woman who looked like her, with a younger version of her daughter standing next to them. "Zor-El?" she asked in shock, recognizing the man as her late husband.
Clark and Lois blinked. They knew from Kara of Lois' resemblance to her mother but seeing it was shocking. "Erm, no Mom." Kara answered her mother. "This is Kal-El, Lois Lane-Kent and Kara Kal-El of Earth-67." she introduced the alternate versions of her cousin, cousin-in-law and their daughter. The two Supermen nodded at each other.
Before anyone could speak, Barry interrupted. "Like I said earlier, we're going to need all hands on deck for this, so I made a quick pit-stop."
Caitlin stared at her friend in shock, as did all of Team Flash. "Barry? Is it really you?" she asked in disbelief.
Barry smiled. "It's me guys. More or less." he told them. But before anyone could say or do anything else, Barry continued. "Okay, we should get onboard." he told them. He turned to Oliver and said "We have a lot of work ahead of us." Oliver nodded.
Moments later, all the heroes were assembled on the bridge of the Waverider of Earth-1. The group took the opportunity to mingle and bring each other up to date.
Soon enough they all gathered around as Barry began to speak. "To give all of you an idea of what needs to be done, you must understand our enemy." he told them before beginning the tale.
"10,000 years ago on the planet Maltus, Mar Novu opened a breach in an attempt to witness the Birth of the Universe but instead opened a door to the Dawn of Time, an area where both the Positive and Anti-Matter Multiverses exist in what could be considered stability. It was there he came into contact with his counterpart, Mobius. It was upon the unstable contact of the two universes, that Mar Novu and Mobius began a war that would culminate in the Crisis."
Giving all of the heroes a moment to digest what he'd told them, Barry then continued. "Mar Novu foresaw millions of possibilities for this Crisis, however he proved he was the Dumbest Genius in the Entire Multiverse by only focusing on the first one he saw where we were victorious. After that he began manipulating events to get that outcome regardless of the potential ramifications of it."
"What do you mean ramifications?" Oliver asked in confusion.
Barry smiled. "When you asked if I really was Barry Allen, I told you that I was. 'More or Less' is what I said. What I meant was that I am in fact the amalgamation of an infinite Earth-1 Barry Allens who have all seen different versions of this Crisis and are now all working together for the best possible outcome. Ironically Novus version of events would've led to the Worst Possible Outcome."
"How so?" Sara asked the being who was apparently multiple versions of her husband. Were things in a better place, she'd probably be making a dirty joke or two about that.
"Imagine reality is a building. The tallest in existence." Barry began. "Imagine that the first floor is Earth-1 and that all the above floors are identical to it baring a few differences - some minor some major. Now imagine that an Anti-Matter Wrecking Ball comes along and demolishes the building. Then imagine that a new building is built, almost identical to the old one, except now features of different floors are now on one floor and many are barely recognizable."
"Imagine that the first floor - now called Earth-Prime - is supported by seven columns holding up the entire building." he continued.
Kara interrupted "The seven columns are the Seven Paragons." she reasoned.
Savitar nodded. "Yes. Now imagine that the architect of the building - aka Novu - constructed those columns out of inferior materials so that they weren't as strong as they should've been. As a result those columns began to crumble and began to take Earth-Prime and the rest of the Multiverse with them.
"You're saying that because we weren't at our best in this other timeline, the multiverse was ending all over again." Bruce asked in puzzlement.
"Exactly." Barry nodded in agreement. "Upon discovering this, the Barry Allen of Earth-Prime - who had lived through Novu's version - chose to travel back to the Pre-Crisis timeline and merge with other versions of himself, in order to aid the Speed Force and a friend, in fixing was going to happen."
"But to get the best possible result, we needed to alter events leading up to it. Seemingly tiny moments that had great ramifications." He told them.
"Like what?" Clark asked.
Barry turned to Sara. He smiled. "Like a message asking you to pick up a certain traumatized speedster before he could alter history." Sara's eyes widened in shock.
He then turned to Oliver. "Like your best friend - who you knew was in the Speed Force at the time - whispering in your ear, reminding you about Kara to ask for help in saving your team from Prometheus."
Oliver looked at his friend in shock. He remembered when Prometheus had kidnapped his family, Oliver had close to the last straw when a sudden whisper had just said 'Kara' in his ear. He believed it had been Barry from the Speed Force and had sworn that he'd seen just a faint image of Barry. However his friend hadn't seemed to know what he was talking about when he'd finally gotten out of the Speed Force.
Then Barry turned to Bruce. "Or a photograph of you and Selina blowing over to you, reminding you of your friendship, so you return home 3 years earlier than you'd planned." Bruce blinked. remembering the incident in question when he was still on his travels.
Before Barry could continue, Oliver spoke up as he realized something. "You brought Mia to our time, didn't you?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Mia and Kara looked at Barry in surprise, while Barry just smiled. "Even though we had changed so much already, you were still going to die on Earth-38 no matter what." he said bluntly, making Oliver wince as Kara glared at him. "To prevent this, I brought your daughter over from a timeline where you died, to encourage you to give her a better future. But to have any hope of getting the best outcome, an important event had to take place." Here he smiled sadly at Sara. "I had to die. No matter what happened, if Oliver didn't die then I would. And vice versa."
Everyone was shocked, especially those who knew the two in question, realizing that no matter what happened they were going to lose someone they cared for. Oliver realized something. "Before you died, you told me that it had to be you. That someone else would get it wrong." he remembered. "That's what happened isn't it. I did something and it went wrong." The Green Arrow hypothesized.
The White Flash nodded. "Lets just say you became a spectre of yourself, and tried to do the best you could with what you had, only for it to end badly."
There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to take in this new information. Kara took a deep breath to calm herself from the idea that her husband would've died were it not for their daughter time travelling, but as a result their friend died in his place. "So what happens now?" she asked hopeful for some good news.
"As I said, the Dawn of Time is a place where the Positive-Matter Multiverse and the Anti-Matter Multiverse meet." Barry told them. "However neither side can overcome the other without help from that side. Basically, just like with Novu, the only way for Anti-Matter to enter the Positive Matter side is for someone of Positive Matter to let them in at the right time. And vice versa."
"Unfortunately, Mobius has just what he needs." he revealed to the stunned heroes.
"What?!" Clark asked in shock. "You're saying that someone of our Universes is helping the Anti-Monitor destroy us?" he demanded angrily, as he thought of all of his family and friends who he had lost on his Earth. "Who?!"
Barry nodded. "Yes, Mobius has recruited Eight individuals - Eight Renegades if you will - who all have their reasons for stopping us." He then turned to each of the Paragons and named their enemies.
To Clark. "General Dru-Zod of Universe-67." Clark's eyes widened in shock. Lois put her hand on his shoulder in comfort.
To Bruce. "Jerome Valeska. Better known as the Joker." Bruce growled in anger at just the mention of his most hated enemy. Those of other Earth's recognized the name Joker.
To Jefferson. "Tobias Whale, of Earth-77." Jefferson and the Pierce family (including Gambi) all glared angrily at the mention of the man who had caused so much pain and suffering in their city.
To J'onn. "Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg-Superman of Earth-38." The Last Green Martian winced at the mention of the man whose identity he'd taken.
To Sara. "Damien Darhk." Both Sara and the whole of Team Arrow - including Laurel Lance of Earth-2 - growled at the mention of the man who'd murdered the Laurel Lance of Earth-1.
To Kara. "Lex Luthor of Earth-38." Kara's eyes actually lit up in rage. All of the heroes of Earth-38 showed varying degrees of anger. The Lex in the room just groaned at the mention of his doppelganger.
And finally he turned to Oliver. "And Malcolm Merlyn." Oliver and Thea both groaned at the mention of Team Arrow's oldest enemy.
But when Barry didn't speak further, only looked equal parts annoyed and angry, Oliver - with a sinking feeling in his gut - asked his friend "Who else Barry?"
Savitar looked at the Green Arrow with a slight smile, before speaking the name those who knew him expected. "Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash." He then grunted in annoyance. "Unfortunately while I can sense the first seven, I can't sense Thawne due to the nature of his connection to the Negative Speed Force. I just know that for some reason, he isn't with the others."
The members of Team Flash swallowed down their emotions towards the man who had caused all of them so much pain and misery.
Kara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Once she had, the Girl of Steel asked the question they all wanted to know. "So what do we do now?" she asked.
"Mobius has both the Renegades and his Army of Shades. The people on this ship won't be enough." Barry answered her. "So, while I take the Paragons to the Dawn of Time, we need everyone else to get us an army of our own." he revealed.
Kal asked the question that was on all their minds. "From where? The Multiverse is gone." he reminded the White Flash.
Barry merely shook his head. "It was destroyed, however it still exists before the destruction and with it, the heroes of the infinite Earths still exist and may be willing to help us."
Oliver was silent before nodding. "OK, you heard the man. Grab what gear you need, and then meet back here. Because in a few hours," he paused then continued "we'll be at war."
Hi folks! I'm back!
Sorry this took me so long, I've just had a lot on my mind lately.
I'm already working on the next chapter and, with luck, i should have it up in a few days. wish me luck.
And yes, Nora Protocol sent everyone to the Waverider of Earth-1. and now they're all going across the multiverse to build an army. I was really tempted to call the next chapter 'Fan-Service: the Movie' but i figured that was a little on the nose.
And yes, i brought in Earth-38's Superman and Lois Lane, since i felt that after seeing some of Superman & Lois, it felt warranted. Plus given what i have planned it felt necessary.
Barry's new suit is the Season 6 & 7 Godspeed suit.